In recent years I have seen many new fanciers enter the Jacobin fancy. I have
watched as many of them struggle to become competitive and I know how frustrating this can be.
In an attempt to be helpful, I will outline what has worked for me. I do have a pretty good track
record with birds I have bred, consistently placing at the top end of the shows.
There are two very basic paths to follow. These are line-breeding and out-crossing. In the more than 20 years I have bred Jacobins, I have used both methods with reasonably good success. However, there is no doubt in my mind that in the long run, linebreeding, if done properly, will yield your greatest success. In the beginning you will almost surely have to rely upon outcrosses to acquire the attributes you will need to start your stud. However it will require linebreeding in the years that follow, to set the desirable traits in your family and give you the consistency you need to be successful.
To start, you must acquire the best Jacobins you can from reputable breeders with a good show record. Do not start with too many birds; three to four pair in a colour should be all you need. It has been my experience when getting started that you do not often get birds from a single breeder which will give you all of the qualities you need to breed superior offspring. Even the most successful breeders' birds will often lack a certain feature or characteristic. A fancier will only rarely sell you a pair which are a total compliment to one another. After all, you should not expect a breeder who has spent years developing a family to sell you a pair that is going to produce superior offspring to what he has kept, particularly if you haven’t even proven yourself yet. This is where the reputable part comes in. The breeder who is selling the birds should not only tell you about the birds’ good points, but also their weaknesses and how you must improve upon them.
This is the difficult part for the new breeder who will have to recognize the features which the birds lack and then go find birds which will compensate. This is where going to shows that are handled by good judges is really important for the novice. It is here that you will learn to recognize the features that you are trying to achieve. If you don’t understand something, ask the judge to explain after he is done, and he will be more than happy to show you. It will be the judge's advice along with the advice of experienced breeders, that will steer you in the right direction.
Once you feel that you have acquired most of the birds you need to complete the puzzle, the breeding process begins. At this point many of your matings will probably be out-crosses. If you have been fortunate enough to gather pairs which compliment each other, you may be pleasantly surprised with your first set of youngsters. In the early years of my breeding program, I bred two Jacobins that went on to win championships from two different out-cross matings. It was from this point on that things got much more difficult. Birds bred from out-cross matings are very unpredictable in the breeding pen. Because they come from diverse genetic backgrounds, they will often produce offspring which vary greatly from good to poor, and the poor ones will almost always outnumber the good ones. It is important to remember not to try to achieve all of your goals in one mating or one season.
It is also critical not to continue to bring in new stock year after year or your birds will never be predictable in the breeding pen. When you put a pair together, you should always have a picture in your mind’s eye of what you expect that pair to produce by combining the best characteristics each parent has to offer. Many of the youngsters will show the weaknesses rather than the strengths of the mating. If you raise enough youngsters from a pair, chances are, sooner or later you will get what you want, or close to it. One small step at a time is all you should expect to take, otherwise you are just setting yourself up for disappointment. You will find that the more closely related your birds get, the more predictable they are in the breeding pen. I find that with my most established families of line-bred Jacobins, I can produce youngsters from each pair that are very close to what I want each season.
You may find that once you are years into a breeding program that a weakness in your family will become prevalent. Line-breeding will do this. Not only does it strengthen the good features, but it brings out the faults as well. At this point you may find it necessary to make an out-cross to an individual that will correct the fault you are dealing with. Once the out-cross is made, retain the offspring which most strongly exhibits the qualities you are looking for and discard the original out-cross bird.
When line-breeding I will mate fathers to daughters, mother to son, half sister to half brother, grandfather to granddaughter, and so on. To a large degree this is inbreeding which in effect is line-breeding taken to the extreme. I do not mate brother to sister, however, some breeders do with good success. It is important to remember that the relationship of the mating is pointless unless the individuals compliment one another.
Breeding as many youngsters as possible early in the season will greatly improve your chances of being successful. More babies from each pair will improve your chances of hitting on the
genetic combinations you are looking for. Line-bred matings will increase the odds of producing these combinations. Youngsters bred early in the season are the ones which will be most competitive in the shows. The methods I have suggested have worked well for me. I would suggest talking to other successful pigeon breeders and ask what methods have worked for them.
Written by Clint Robertson <clint@jacobins.ca>